The Cognichrome is an art installation which reads a person’s brain using an EEG and instructs a robot to paint the interpretation of the user’s thoughts on a real canvas. The painting evolves as the wearer is mentally interacting with the device, as their mind is exposed to new videos from the device’s monitors. When they decide to stop they can take the canvas home with them.

Development

Currently the Cognichrome is in development. While the EEG and software components of the device are functional, the hardware aspect is conceptual. Using brain waves to paint the mind's status for the sake of art is the ultimate purpose.

Brain Scanner

A consumer grade EEG device akin to the Neurosky’s headset. More sophisticated consumer grade EEG devices already exist and others are on the horizon

Robot

The robotic hand used to paint would be standard industrial robot hand such as ones made by Kuka or ABB. Speed and ergonomics would be key factors in selecting the device. The Kuka LWR would be an ideal candidate

The Computer

The interpreting computer is completely behind the scenes but is arguably the most important component. Its algorithms first interpret the brain waves and aim to classify the current mental state of the user. While there is a healthy amount of discussion around the potential of EEG technology, today the insights the Cognichrome is able to infer about are fairly low resolution.

The Algorithm

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The algorithm which is using a modified form of an unsupervised classifier described here can detect overt human emotions such as: Excitement, disgust, arousal, concentration, meditation, fear. Once the machine learning algorithms detect the mental state of the user, the computer instructs the robot to render an interpretation of the emotions on a canvas. Using simple logic we could draw red zigzags if the user is excited and blue waves if the user is in a meditative state. A more advanced interpretation uses the mental states to changes parameters to a fractal which the robot is painting real time. An artist-programmer could create various mental-state-to-robotic-motion mappings breathing human judgment to the AI painter.

Software

Some prototypes were created with Rapidminer.
Most processing done in R.
Inspiration for the software came from the Wave_clus package by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga
Conceptual designs for robotic control software includes use of ‘fractalrock’ CRAN package

Another Project

The Vision

The vision is to create a EEG based robotic painter which uses nothing but brainwaves to create art. The goal of the Cognichrome is to artistically explore the promising filed of Brain to Computer Interface (BCI) and art. From art galleries to festivals.

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Gene Ekster, the creative lead behind the Cognichrome has a background in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence. Please get in touch with him if you are are curious about EEG technology, robots or art and would like to participate. The project would greatly benefit from talented folks helping and taking a leading role.